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Beer Mile 2012

‘Will run for beer’ just doesn’t even cut it. It was more like ‘will run after chugging beer’. Ugghhhh…why?

When I was invited to attend the 6th Annual Beer Mile on Saturday by my fellow co-workers I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Back home we do a BoozeCruise every year [beer + bicycles.. probably not the safest of ideas] but here in GA they do their own version of a Booze Cruise [beer + running = Beer Mile].

I will admit I was curious as to how this would work and how I would be able to handle it. But I took on the Beer Mile challenge like a champ!

The rules are simply this…you must chug a beer (at least 5% alcohol) then run a quarter mile. You continue this process as quickly as possible until you have completed the beer mile [4 beers and 4 quarter mile laps].

A penalty lap is added at the end if at any point you throw up.

Once the rules were announced the chugging began.

After each beer was downed you were supposed to tilt it over your head to signify that you were finished.

And then you run like crazy!

I wasn’t so worried about the running part because a quarter of a mile sounded super easy. But when you throw in a pretty steep hill and a tummy full of carbonation and alcohol you are dealing with a whole different beast.

I downed the first beer and completed the first lap no problem. It was the start of that second beer that was giving me some trouble. I got it down, but honestly was feeling a little rough at this point.

Once I started back down the hill I felt better [believe it or not]. Though the thought of trying to down a third beer was not sitting well.

I reached the top of the hill and grabbed beer number three.

At this point I was having some serious doubts. My stomach hurt and just the taste of this beer was making me want to vomit. I looked over to see this sight — totally didn’t help.

People were losing it right and left and I was pretty sure I was next. I would take a sip and then pace around for a minute trying to convince myself that I had it in me to do this.

Thoughts of a DNF [did not finish] were tempting.

I looked over at my fellow co-worker who was struggling just as much as I at this point and we finished off our third beer with much agony in our faces.

(this photo was taken pre-race…we did not look this happy by beer 3…trust me!)

She promised to run the rest of the race with me, but decided that a fourth beer just wasn’t going to work. I was ready to quit drinking at this point too until it happened.

I puked, but honestly felt this rush come over me. I had a second wind and was ready to finish this race strong.

We sprinted up the hill knowing I had one final beer to drink and two stupid laps to run due to my having to add on a penalty lap.

I drank that last beer as quickly as I could. It went down a lot easier then the previous two.

I was just ready to be done at this point.

Thank goodness for my co-worker. She ran with me the final two laps until I could cross that finish line as an official Beer Mile finisher. Even though she didn’t finish her 4th beer, she was still a trooper!

Me an official beer mile finisher! You can see the girl in the background bringing up the cones, as I was the last person to finish the race.

You may call that being a loser, but in this race even the loser wins!

Shortly after the race they did an awards presentation. Another fellow co-worker won fastest beer mile in the woman’s category and received the prize of the golden shoe.

And I won last woman finisher [finishing time of 25:02] and was happy to be carrying off the brick of glass chards.

Oh my! I’ve never once won anything in a running race, how hilarious that I win something for last place?

Oh yes, and let’s not forget the finisher’s medals! Check out that beer can on a shoe string. Too funny!!

I’m happy to say that I placed my beer can award on the mantel to show off my accomplishments of at least winning something at this race.

I bet my husband is so proud of me.

Sure looks that way as he was carrying out my brick to the car upon our departure of the race.

This race was by far one of the hardest races I have ever ran. I’m not really even sure if I would embark on such a crazy adventure again.

It was fun to say I did it, but the beer mile is no joke.

Our work group photo: one loser, one winner and one DNF. Way to represent!!

***

Just curious! Would you ever even consider doing a race that involved running and beer chugging?

OMG that is the best adventure yet! You forgot to include that you did all this in some humidity and heat that those of us around here don’t deal with! You are truly a running Goddess!!! The only beer drinking I have done during a run was at the Pacific Crest half marathon around mile 7… I thought it would either kill me or make things better… I ended up getting second place in the Athena division ( yes that would be the plumpie division!) Love it! Congrats girl!

Thanks K! I think this was one of those races that even spectating is fun! I forgot to mention that they did do a chocolate milk mile for the kiddos before our race. Though chugging milk and running also doesn’t sound any better than chugging beer. LOL.

Although it was hard, it looks like a lot of fun.
I wouldn’t do this, I don’t like beer AT ALL. I never drink it. Was it a wine mile … that’s a different story. I would definitely do that. I know there’s a marathon in France in the wine area where you have to drink wine all the way long. I don’t run marathons but otherwise it sounds fun.

I like beer and running, but I doubt I could combine the two in the same way that you did! Way to be a trooper and run and chug all those beers… I don’t think I could have done that.

We have a couple 5K beer runs here in the Twin Cities area, but they don’t require chugging beer along the course. They have a “beer stop” (instead of a water stop) part-way through and have beer at the finish line for participants.

That is hilarious! I don’t drink beer very often, but somehow I find this appealing. I can’t see them having a race like that here in Canada. All that legal mumbo-jumbo. I’m actually surprised they have it in the states. Sounds like a good time, but governments tend to step in and squash good times.